Where were you when the arrow hit?

They lived in Staten Island, one mile apart. The day they met, Deb was visiting his next-door neighbor when he walked in for a visit. Her friend introduced them and about one minute later he left.

"I said 'That's the man I'm going to marry.' He was gorgeous to me."

Deb, now of Brookfield, said she was "like a little girl in love.'' She even wrote down in a journal: "I will marry Paul Finck."

The thing is, Paul barely noticed her that day and today has no memory of that meeting.

"I was looking at high school girls," he said.

They crossed paths several times after that over the next few years and each time, their meetings barely registered on Paul's radar, until one day when Deb was 18 and Paul was 20. Paul came home from college on a Christmas break and Deb and her family were at his house for a Christmas party.

Deb was still carrying a torch for Paul. This time, he noticed her. "I came back from college and saw her and fell head over heels," Paul said. "She was just beautiful and I was attracted to her."

They got to know one another pretty well at the party and a few days later, while still home on break, Paul asked her to go to Atlantic City with him. She told him she couldn't go.

"I was intimidated by him. After all that, I said no."

Yet somehow, she knew she would end up with him.

Sure enough, when he graduated from college that year, his first day back home, they wound up in each other's company during a get-together with their respective families. "We were inseparable for two years," Paul said.

They did break up in their early 20s because "it was almost too much too fast," and they were not mature enough, they say. For six years, they dated others, but it was never quite right. The passion wasn't there and both found themselves saying "You aren't Deborah" or "You aren't Paul."

Deb remembers telling one of her boyfriends that she was still in love with Paul. He was nice about the whole thing and told her she should call him. "So I called him," she said.

Paul was living in Connecticut and immediately drove to see her in Staten Island.

"Within two hours, we were in each others arms," Deb said. "We were pretty happy to see each other," added Paul.

Within a year they were living together and in two years were married. They've been married 10 years now and have six children, three sets of twins.

Deb and Paul Finck now say their passion for each other spills over into the rest of their life. If they'd stayed in relationships with others, ones that weren't as passionate, they'd be bored. "Our lives are exciting," Paul said.

"Every year is a new surprise," added Deb.

While Cupid revealed Deb's true love to her when she was just a young girl, the cherubic matchmaker doesn't always step in so quickly. With some couples, Cupid has been known to intervene later in life.

Sherri Hill, 44, met her long-term boyfriend online. It was her first time responding to an ad and his first time putting in an ad. Both had been married before and had a child.

Hill, 44, an assistant to the director of university relations at Western Connecticut State University, said they met in 1999. Valentine's Day was coming up and she was upset she was going to be alone. So she read through the personal ads, and amid all the items was an "amazing ad."

He said he was a motivational speaker and "will sing you to sleep."

She thought the ad was pretty great. "So did 300 and something other women," Hill said. But she wrote to him and he responded. "We have had a standing Thursday night date since February 1999."

And she did end up having a Valentine's Day date with him.

Even though he lives in Marlborough, Conn., they still see each other weekly.

It turns out her boyfriend, Bob Faulhaber, is a minister, but didn't write that on his ad because he didn't want women to have preconceived notions. Hill, who is Jewish, said even if he had written that he was a minister she wouldn't have been turned off.

She says her boyfriend "is an amazing guy with the biggest heart and the wickedest sense of humor. And he told the truth in his AOL personal ad - he has a beautiful tenor voice and it's great to hear him sing."

"I was working as director of media placement for a public relations agency in Boston, and in March of 2001, my boss sent me to Danbury for work," Bernstein said. "Brian Cotter, now my husband, was the attorney working on the same case."

Bernstein, who works in public relations, said she can't talk about the case, but she does recall the first time their paths crossed.

"We first met in a meeting one Tuesday morning in an office on Federal Road. Soon, we began putting mileage on our Jeeps. In July of 2001, I moved to Danbury."

Interestingly, the two grew up just 30 minutes apart in Massachusetts, and both went to college in Washington, D.C.

"It must have been love at first sight," she said, "because we moved pretty quickly. We were married April 13, 2005, on my grandfather's birthday. He had died earlier that year."

Ruth and the late Skitch Henderson are another couple who met through their jobs. Ruth was a 25-year-old model and Skitch was a conductor.

They met in 1955 at the Colonial Theater in New York City, which is now where Lincoln Center is located. They met at a rehearsal for a fashion show and musical.

"He was doing all the music," said Ruth, who was a model in the fashion show.

"I had no idea who he was," she added.

After the show, they traded cars. It was Skitch's idea. He let her take home his rare 300SL Gull-wing Mercedes. He took her Volkswagen convertible.

It was 1955, she had just gotten divorced and was a "freewheeling New York City woman." After those two dates, she had to leave for a two-week modeling job in the Virgin Islands. The job took her to four different islands.

"He sent me roses at each of the islands," Ruth said.

When she came back from that job, things got serious, and they were married in 1958. They'd been married 48 years when he passed away in November.

While many people do meet their mates at work, there are many other avenues, says Robin Gorman-Newman, author of "How to Marry a Mensch." (Mensch is Yiddish for a sensible, responsible, mature person.)

"It is possible to meet your spouse any way, any time if you are truly open to making a love connection." says Gorman-Newman. "The ideal way is to pursue your passions so you meet a kindred soul."

Gorman-Newman says the Internet can be an effective tool if you pursue reputable sites, do it smartly and safely, and make a real effort.

"I met my mensch on a singles trip," she said. "I do not know a lot of people who meet at work."

Still, true love can happen anywhere. Western Connecticut State University professor Harry Schramm met his wife in a hospital room.

"It was love from afar at first encounter," Schramm said. "I love talking about my wife, who has been the center of my life and my universe for some 37 years now."

Schramm, 63, met her in the pediatrics ward at Danbury Hospital, where his younger sister was taken after being seriously injured in an auto accident.

The nurse assigned to her case was the then young Patricia Borodenko from Brookfield, and from St. Vincent's School of Nursing.

"Since I was taking courses at WCSU then as an undergraduate, I came directly from school to visit my sister Mary, and saw Pat every day," said Schramm. "Mary continued in a coma for a month or so and our visits were frequent."

His sister, Mary, eventually recovered. His relationship "with my now wife continued on its own terms."

Schramm said his wife is "one of the most loving, selfless and intuitive people" he's ever met or could have imagined. And falling in love with her was the best thing that's happened in his life. When he recently recovered from heart surgery, she "again filled her role as 'healer' in ways physical and spiritual. We are lucky to have each other and enjoy our time together..."

Schramm said the story still gives him goose bumps. "How wonderful, and after 37 years."

"She is a saint; I saw that, and her outer and inner beauty immediately, but I was really very shy then," he added.

Schramm has since outgrown his shyness, but back then it took a while to ask her out.

"We never really doubted that we'd be together. How lucky that we have had so many great times together and can envision more."